With about 400,000 species, I would say that the dude was obsessed with them critters. I, for one, welcome our new beetle overlords.

Upvoted. I'll upvote anything with cats in it, they're such cute critters.

That's my new fake job at bars. Sound Recordist! I record critter sounds for a living!

It's all about potential difference. Electricity will normally arc about 1cm for every 1000 volts of potential difference (ground vs live). Usually the lines running to your house would be 220v (or 110v in some places), and insulated, so the critter is quite safe as long as he doesn't actually chew through the wire while standing somewhere grounded.

High voltage transmission lines are quite safe for birds to sit on, because although they might be 10,000v or 100,000 volts potential with respect to the ground, the bird is sitting on the wire and has a potential of 0 with respect to that wire.

So, back to these guys. Their outfits are protective, containing conductive material so the electricity will flow around and not through the worker, but as you can hear they were still getting quite hot. Usually line inspectors would have a conductive hook to throw over the line to bring their bucket up to the same potential as the line, the fact that they haven't done so is most likely precisely so they can make these arcs.

From the length of the arcs, perhaps this was a 33kV transmission line? I doubt they would have been quite so cavalier with a 110kV one.

Vimeo description:

Animated by Austin illustrator Divya Srinivasan, this animated video depicts three sleepy ghost kids following a heterochromic fox through a snowy twilight. When the group discovers an impromptu critter disco in a forest clearing, the spirits and strays dance in harmony until a cranky babushka bemoans the noise and breaks up the party. Thus, the spectral youths return to the astral plane... but not without a final farewell to their new found animal friends.

Divya Srinivasan has previously created animated videos for Spoon ("Everything Hits at Once"), They Might Be Giants, The Sundance Channel and Wonder Showzen, and worked on Richard Linklater's "Waking Life" feature film. Divya's illustration portfolio includes numerous pieces for the New Yorker magazine, as well as the album artwork for Sufjan Stevens' Illinois and This American Life's "Stories of Hope and Fear" collection.

"I Saw The Bright Shinies" is from The Octopus Project's album "Hello, Avalanche," released in 2007 on Peek-A-Boo Records. The "Bright Shinies" video appears on the "Golden Beds" enhanced CD EP released in 2009 on Peek-A-Boo Records.

peekaboorecords.com/octopusproject
theoctopusproject.com
myspace.com/theoctopusproject
pupae.com/portfolio

*length=4:10

They are probably playing with a laser or insect-like object a the end of a string. I know a couple cats that do this to lasers, insects or little critters, each time I have seen it they make a tsk-tsk sound with a vocal whimper, exactly as it is shown here. I don't know why they do this but it might be a way of calling them in. Maybe they are imitating humans calling them in. I find it quite a peculiar phenomenon. Upvote for discussion.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/mantis1.asp

You're finding all them metaphorical critters today!! Woo-Hooo!

I thought the little critter was as cute as a button

Updated the list

@Sepacore - In the case of Nazi Germany, The Taliban, 1970's Chile and the confederate south, the gun owners were the tyrants. I think gun owners are more likely to support a repressive government smashing it's citizens than stopping it. Even if you don't take recent history into account, guns don't do much against tanks, drones, helicopters, SEAL teams and stealth bombers.

@aimpoint - You make a good point about growing up with guns. To those who grow up in more rural/isolated areas, guns are a useful part of life - hunting, sport, defending your property from nasty critters, etc. Those who grow up in urban/denser settings see guns as things that facilitate crime - drivebys, robbery, murder, domestic abuse, etc.

Y U NOT IN LOUNGE CRITTER CAT?!

>> ^Yogi:

Is this for real? I've been hearing that it blows.

Its not the revolution this review seems to make it but its not bad. The strongest aspect of the game is how fucking gorgeous everything looks. The areas are pretty draw dropping, you'll want to level just so you can explore further. The combat is also fairly fun, at least for MMO standards.


The questing differences are really only superficial. While WoW might have you collecting hides from random critters GW2 has you doing much the same thing. The dynamic events are painfully formulaic. They pretty much all call for you to kill a boss that spawns, defend a small settlement, escort supplies etc and frankly it becomes quite monotonous.

The principle criticism of GW2 was that it wasn't really a persistent MMO. They've tried to address this in GW2, but in doing so they have introduced a lot of the flaws of the MMO genre. ANET have been very keen to talk about how different GW2 is from the rest of the genre, but really its less of a departure than GW1 for better and for worse. Its a pretty good effort, but its not all BIG ASS party.

>> ^ant:

>> ^lurgee:
this is why i like kitties better than pooches.

So you like them bringing you presents?


indeedy

>> ^lurgee:

this is why i like kitties better than pooches.


So you like them bringing you presents?